Feb. 15, 1913 
FOREST AND STREAM 
219 
COLD FACTS AND DRY GRINS. 
Continued from page 207. 
shielding one from a view of the cottage, as 
the bench faced the pass. 
My new-found friends had instructed me to 
get down on the bottom if I wanted to catch 
big ones. That is, I must fish without a float, 
and they said it was best not to use a sinker. 
My bait should be large and heavy enough to 
furnish weight for the cast. 
Following their instructions I rigged up for 
a big one, using an 8-o hook, heavy wire snood 
and about four ounces of cut mullet for bait. 
The tide was on the ebb flow and was running 
out fast. When this is the case an old experi¬ 
enced fisherman quits the game, as he knows 
fish will not bite on the ebb. i\Iy friends in¬ 
formed me of this fact, but I did not believe 
them, thinking it was said to prevent me from 
fishing on Sunday. 
I made my cast and got down to the bot¬ 
tom, and in a few moments my line began to 
run off my reel, but very slowly. I gave the 
fish plenty of time, thinking he would soon make 
his rush, but no rush came. After about twenty 
feet of line had been run out in this creeping 
manner, I checked the reel to feel the weight 
of whatever it was. The weight was there, but 
it felt like an old chunk of rotten wood. I deter¬ 
mined to reel in slowly and did so and brought 
to the surface what looked to me like the "devil 
before daylight.” The thing that had my bait 
was perfectly round and about the size of a peck 
measure. He had arms or pinchers that were 
an inch or more in diameter. I reeled him up 
on the dock, he holding on to the bait by his 
powerful claws. When I let him dowm on the 
boards, he released my bait, and rearing up on 
his hind legs, made motions with his claws as 
if he would attack me. He was between me and 
the walk way and had me hemmed in with water 
on all sides, His formidable claws looked dan¬ 
gerous and large enough to break an ankle bone. 
I tried to pass, but his sideway movements w'ere 
so threatening I gave it up and backed away to 
the edge of the dock. I yelled to my friends 
for help, but they were very slow in respond¬ 
ing. They were enjoying my situation. At last 
they started in my direction, coming up behind 
the crab, as I learned later the thing was. As 
they came up behind him, he advanced on me, 
and I, becoming panic-stricken, went overlioard 
in water over my head and had to swim and 
wade to shore. When I reached terra firma, the 
crab had been captured by the parson by scoop¬ 
ing him up from the rear, holding him in such 
a manner as to prevent him from reaching his 
hand with his claws. 'I'he laugh was all on me, 
and I submitted as gracefully as possible. The 
capture was a great prize, as the large giant 
crab is considered a great delicacy. Pass-a- 
Grille is noted for these crabs. Their claws are 
boiled until done, and then broken up with a 
hammer, and the flesh contained is delicious. 
The canning of the flesh of these crabs is quite 
an industry in Japan, and our imports from that 
country can now be found in almost every 
grocery store in this country. 
After a change of clothing I went back to 
fishing. I felt that I had rather quit, but the 
“joshing” I received put me on my mettle, and 
I rather forced myself to continue. 
The tide was now running out strong as in 
an hour or two it would turn back. I baited 
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and got down on the bottom again. There was 
nothing doing. After trying about for quite 
awhile, I settled down on the bench, and the 
warm sunshine and balmy air soon had its effect. 
I became drowsy and dozed off into a cat nap. 
Being a little "hard o' hearin',” and my pole 
growing heavy, I stuck the butt of it in a knot 
hole in the planking and took the line in my 
hand, letting it lie loosely across my palm, so I 
would be awakened by the feel of it crossing, if 
I did not hear the reel click. I do not know 
how long I was in this position, but it was not 
long, when suddenly my line ran out and over 
my hand so fast it burnt me, and the reel made 
a great screech. Jumping to my feet in a sleepy 
condition, and acting hurriedly or in the space 
of a few seconds, I made a tremendous jerk, 
throwing my pole over my right shoulder so 
hard the tip struck the boards behind me, and 
I nearly stood on my head. I had struck at 
nothing, or rather there was no weight on my 
hook to balance my tremendous effort. 
At one time in my life I was a shipping 
clerk in a wholesale grocery store. I w'as ship¬ 
ping a hundred boxes of sixty pounds each of 
cheddah cheese one day, having an Irish porter 
load them on a drajc The cheese was in tiers 
of six boxes each and were lined up on the 
pavement ready for the dray to load. Pat was 
swinging his body rhythmically and accurately to 
the weight of each bo.x as to the distance he 
must elevate it to the dray. One dray had been 
loaded, and the work being very hard, I allowed 
Pat, at his request, to go to the corner saloon 
and get a drink before commencing on the next 
load. While he was aw'ay I took the cheese 
out of the bottom box of one of the tiers. In 
due course of time Pat came to this box. 
When he grasped it and threw his body, muscle 
and weight against the supposed weight in the 
bo.x, he turned a complete somersault. 
“By the holy gum bone and Moses,” he 
said. “Thet’s ther forist toim in me loife I iver 
had wan dhrink ter make me ther daddy o’ 
Hercules.” 
The joke I had worked on Pat was now' 
lieing w'orked on me, and I did not enjoy it 
near so much as when I w'as the joker. There 
is a vast difference betw'een a joker and a jokee. 
As I recovered my balance, I exclaimed, 
“Missed him, by gum.” And then I heard a 
giggle from behind the bench. Looking down 
behind it I saw the parson w'rithing and shak¬ 
ing wdth hearty laughter, and now there was a 
great guffaw' from the cottage. The parson had 
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hooked a piece of wire on my line just beyond 
the tip of my pole, and giving this a big jerk, 
had caused all of my activity and trouble. 
Did you ever notice the difference between 
being laughed at and being laughed with? There 
is just as much difference as there is between 
daylight and darkness. No one can enjoy a good 
hearty laugh more than 1 can, and few will 
suffer more when they are the objects laughed 
at. I screwed my face up into the semblance 
of a laugh, holding the muscles of my face and 
stomach tense and on a strain that in time be¬ 
came very painful. I would have been glad to 
discontinue my fishing by this time, but being 
bull-headed by nature, I couldn't give in. The 
tide W’as now' turning, and I put on a fresh 
bait and made another cast. In a short time I 
had a strike and hooked a nice fish. Aly reel 
had worked loose in the slide on my pole, and 
in playing my fish it suddenly slipped out. and 
before I could catch it, fell off and went to the 
bottom of the Itay. There I stood with a fish 
w'ell hooked, and my reel at the bottom of forty 
feet of water, and the pole in my hands w'ith 
the line running through the guides. I tried to 
do something with my fish by pulling on the 
line with my bare hands, but he was too heavy, 
and after cutting and burning them, I gave it 
up. I stood holding the pole wondering if I 
had tied the line to the reel barrel, and w'onder- 
ing if I would lose that borrowed reel. I was 
extremely uncomfortable and my jackassical 
friends w'ere braying again as if they would 
burst with their merriment. I held on to the 
pole, and after a time the fish ran out all of 
the 600 feet of line and elevated the reel back 
to the slide groove. Quickly replacing it, I 
reeled in the fish, which was about broken down 
